The Mmabatho Palms Hotel

Our home for 23 nights in Mafikeng is the Mmabatho Palms Hotel and Casino. And while I’ve mentioned bits and pieces about the hotel in other blog posts, I haven’t given a full description of our home. Mafikeng is quite small with respect to tourism with two main hotels and a smattering of bed-n-breakfasts. Ours is said to be one of the oldest hotels and casinos and I can imagine what it was like back in its prime.

The Mmabatho Palms is quite large as it does have both a non-smoking and smoking casino, although I don’t think anyone has actually gambled. There are two pools, too cold to swim right now, though … a spa … the chained-up fitness center… a few conference rooms …. and a main restaurant with attached bar and lounge where we eat most of our meals. The breakfast is included and a buffet with both hot and cold items – no complaints here! And dinner is either a buffet (if occupancy is high) or table service (if occupancy is low). We aren’t quite sure which it will be until we get back each night. The food has been pretty good for hotel food, but the service is quite slow. But it’s not just here, it’s part of the culture and like that everywhere we’ve been. Dinners take between 90 minutes and 3 hours.

My room is like any regular American hotel chain, although on the dated side. Many of us has had some struggle with our rooms so we have picked our battles. My room, for instance, has wonderful WIFI access, but lacks a safe and has very temperamental water temperature in the shower. But WIFI is king to me, so I don’t want to chance moving rooms and losing a good connection – how else would I blog every day?! The rooms are arranged in a large circle with open air hallways so you walk outside from your room to any other location.

My room — the kids have been the most curious about it and I show it to them often on Facetime — and don’t mind my jeans drying on the TV. Remember all the laundryI did over the weekend?

Have a look through the slide show and imagine how fun this place was back when everything was maintained and functional. I can imagine it was quite the destination! The outdoor areas are very pretty and we are having a good time sitting by the pool on some evenings or using the lounge as an after-hours work spot.